way better than Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Quake, and likely other alumni. also way better than many games aping it and its peers: Dusk, Prodeus, and so on. it's actually kind of surprising how good it is, actually, given details regarding its production. is way harder than any of the aforementioned games. that can largely be pinned on something of a signature and infamous feature: the Cultists (and Fanatics): a common mook, the second monster met, is a fairly long-range high-damage shotgun hitscanner, with an elite tommy gun counterpart. they can't really be dodged or outranged, and they kill faster than an enemy first met in the penultimate episode. their presence alters the first-person-shooting on a close-to-if-not fundamental level, requiring peeking and pre-firing given that every half-second spent around a corner could cost ~50 health. learning how to counter them is counterintuitive and excruciating but rewarding; it's something special and not a sort of experience that would be replicated in the genre for around two decades.

there are only two real issues. first, the use of bullet-sponge boss enemies as recurring enemies after their boss fights -- boss fights which aren't even good. second, some maps (more parts of maps) are relatively and needlessly labyrinthine, bordering on reminiscence to contemporaries, but this is basically a nitpick in the face of largely above-par level design.